Wanting a different lifestyle, strong-willed English citizens ventured into the unknown. The New World held new possibilities, yet with obstacles they could not have imagined. Awaiting them was a chance at religious freedom and wealth. Creating a new home seemed harder than envisioned, especially as old friends became new enemies. As the English settled into their colonies, greed drove them to take advantage of those who helped them. People may take the Native Americans' side and believe the colonists were blatantly taking advantage of the Indians. On the other hand, people may believe the Europeans' previous lifestyle caused these actions. During the 1600s, the relationship between the Native Americans and European colonists changed dramatically.
religious freedom and become wealthy. As more and more Europeans saw how the colonists worked and lived, they wanted to have that type of life too. In order to do this, they traveled over the Atlantic Ocean to these colonies. The first colony, Jamestown, Virginia, came over with abundant ships of young men in 1607. Their plan in a nutshell was to work for a couple years, get filthy rich, and return to England. The relationship between the Virginian men and the Indians started amiable. Then in 1620, another colony, funded by The Plymouth Company became Plymouth Bay, or just Plymouth. These Europeans came over for religious freedom because, like Calvinists in a Protestant England, they were to either leave or become Protestants. Instead of converting, the Calvinists took the long journey to America in the hope of expressing their different beliefs in freedom and acceptance. In the beginning, the natives and the colonists lived together with peace and harmony.
The natives believed that they were equal with everything in the universe, being neither superior nor inferior to anything on this planet. They believed they did not own the land, but that they used the parts of the land that other tribes did not. They did not take more food than was necessary to have, or else the gods of harvest and crops would curse them with bad seasons. When the colonists began to arrive in the "New World", they were good-natured and willing to live in peace with the Indians. The natives gave the colonies protection, food, taught them to fish, farm, and gave them land to build homes, churches, and farms. However, as the colonies settled in and adapted to colonial life, they started pressuring the Indians. The Native Americans felt unappreciated for all the work they did to help the colonies elude failing and dying out. After a while with the less than kind treatment, the Indians started to take action and began punishing the colonists to keep them from dominating the Native Americans.
After becoming familiar with an experience out of the realm of what the colonists saw as an alternative life, the two crowds became less gracious with each other. In Jamestown, the men started taking more food, land, and protection. Land was a big part of their bargains with the Indians; the big money crop in Jamestown was tobacco, which absolutely killed the minerals and nutrients in the soil. After using the land for a year for tobacco, it would be twenty years until the farmers could use the same acres of land again. So every year for the first twenty years of discovering tobacco, the colonists wasted more and more of the Indians' precious land. In Plymouth, the years came and went, and the colonists needed more supplies and started taking more food, land, protection, and trees, which the growing shipbuilding industry used regularly, which the Indians provided.
While all of these demands, needs, and wants formed in the colonies, how did the Indians feel? The Indians would have been more reluctant to giving more land to the colonists if they did not keep losing land themselves. The colonists needing more land moved the Native Americans further into the woods. At first, the Indian tried to work it out on small levels, such as the "Starving Time" in the winter of 1609-1610, where the Powhatan Tribe did not give Jamestown food because they took advantage of the crops and harvests and needed to be checked. The Powhatan Wars from 1610-1619 were brutal for both sides, and were not resolved until the marriage of the chief's daughter, Pocahontas, and the wealthiest tobacco farmer in Jamestown, John Rolfe. This might have stopped the fighting for the time being, but the overall tension between the colonies and the tribes was long from being over.
Did the Europeans find a different lifestyle, gain wealth, or religious freedom in the great unknown? Yes, the English found a lifestyle so different from what they recognized. They also gained wealth and masses of religious freedom in the "New World." The trudge over the Atlantic Ocean was indeed a success. But what about everything that happened once they hit shore? The Native Americans helped the transition from the old life to the new one, but to an extent. Once the English began to adjust to non-English life, the demands started. The demand for land, food, protection, and other "necessities" became too much for the Indians and they started to become agitated. As tension grew greater and greater, the relationship took a rough turn and changed dramatically, and not for the better. The Europeans, greedy for more, took the Native Americans' generosity and trampled their gentle kindness. Greed appeared to be at the core of the colonial problem. If the colonists kept their wants in check, peace would have lasted for decades and the Europeans would not look like the people who drove out the indigenous tribes who kept them alive during the beginning of that new life.
Native and Colonial America
Innocent and Ignorant, or Guilty and Competent?
The First Arrival and Meeting
In the 1600s, Europeans, most of whom were English, came to America to have
Table of Contents
The natives believed that they were equal with everything in the universe, being neither superior nor inferior to anything on this planet. They believed they did not own the land, but that they used the parts of the land that other tribes did not. They did not take more food than was necessary to have, or else the gods of harvest and crops would curse them with bad seasons. When the colonists began to arrive in the "New World", they were good-natured and willing to live in peace with the Indians. The natives gave the colonies protection, food, taught them to fish, farm, and gave them land to build homes, churches, and farms. However, as the colonies settled in and adapted to colonial life, they started pressuring the Indians. The Native Americans felt unappreciated for all the work they did to help the colonies elude failing and dying out. After a while with the less than kind treatment, the Indians started to take action and began punishing the colonists to keep them from dominating the Native Americans.
Changing Attitudes
After becoming familiar with an experience out of the realm of what the colonists saw as an alternative life, the two crowds became less gracious with each other. In Jamestown, the men started taking more food, land, and protection. Land was a big part of their bargains with the Indians; the big money crop in Jamestown was tobacco, which absolutely killed the minerals and nutrients in the soil. After using the land for a year for tobacco, it would be twenty years until the farmers could use the same acres of land again. So every year for the first twenty years of discovering tobacco, the colonists wasted more and more of the Indians' precious land. In Plymouth, the years came and went, and the colonists needed more supplies and started taking more food, land, protection, and trees, which the growing shipbuilding industry used regularly, which the Indians provided.
While all of these demands, needs, and wants formed in the colonies, how did the Indians feel? The Indians would have been more reluctant to giving more land to the colonists if they did not keep losing land themselves. The colonists needing more land moved the Native Americans further into the woods. At first, the Indian tried to work it out on small levels, such as the "Starving Time" in the winter of 1609-1610, where the Powhatan Tribe did not give Jamestown food because they took advantage of the crops and harvests and needed to be checked. The Powhatan Wars from 1610-1619 were brutal for both sides, and were not resolved until the marriage of the chief's daughter, Pocahontas, and the wealthiest tobacco farmer in Jamestown, John Rolfe. This might have stopped the fighting for the time being, but the overall tension between the colonies and the tribes was long from being over.
Were the Europeans Right?
Did the Europeans find a different lifestyle, gain wealth, or religious freedom in the great unknown? Yes, the English found a lifestyle so different from what they recognized. They also gained wealth and masses of religious freedom in the "New World." The trudge over the Atlantic Ocean was indeed a success. But what about everything that happened once they hit shore? The Native Americans helped the transition from the old life to the new one, but to an extent. Once the English began to adjust to non-English life, the demands started. The demand for land, food, protection, and other "necessities" became too much for the Indians and they started to become agitated. As tension grew greater and greater, the relationship took a rough turn and changed dramatically, and not for the better. The Europeans, greedy for more, took the Native Americans' generosity and trampled their gentle kindness. Greed appeared to be at the core of the colonial problem. If the colonists kept their wants in check, peace would have lasted for decades and the Europeans would not look like the people who drove out the indigenous tribes who kept them alive during the beginning of that new life.